Talk:Hunter Hollingsworth/@comment-3575890-20160125210829
I am no Hunter apologist by any stretch of the imagination, but I’m about to offer what I know is a VERY unpopular opinion concerning this character right now. As much as I am disgusted with Hunter’s actions, I understand the psyche of which these actions and behavioural issues are derived. You could say it’s in the same vein that I did for Zoe in 14A albeit not completely comparable. I preface this with that emotional and mental trauma is one hell of a catalyst. And this boy is a walking dead-eyed husk damaged and traumatized by years of being under the thumb of an abusive, neglectful, horrible father. While he may not have suffered abuses to the extent that his poor older brother has, he’s just as affected and deals with it in just as much of an unhealthy way. Hunter seeks solace in a virtual world as a temporary solution to escaping his problems. It is the biggest reason why I can’t completely hate him nor not empathize with him. He’s very, very deluded and detached from reality, consequently in result of what we can presume is an unclassified mental disorder. Right now though, that’s just speculation. There are more than enough factors apart from mental illness that account for this boy’s unruly behaviour. He’s been abused, neglected, alienated, bullied, deprived of parental love, guidance, and a proper upbringing. This child is filled with so, so much anger rooted in the abuses he’s incurred. And as we know, abuse begets more abuse. Hunter is a prime example of abusers bred from abuse. When all a child is ever shown and taught is to use violence and aggression and to impose their will on others to get what they want, they’ll soak that up like a sponge and adapt that behaviour and mentality for themselves. This is what has happened to Hunter. He is a reflection of how his father has raised him, and if he doesn’t change his ways soon, he will surely turn out just like him. His father has continually tried to mould his eldest son into himself using violence and fear-mongering tactics. Little does he understand that he already has his miniaturized clone to carry on his legacy of tyranny in the form of his youngest son - or at least, he will if Hunter continues to go down this dark path without any therapeutic or medical intervention. At the root of everything, this falls on Miles II. Hunter is absolutely responsible for his own actions, don’t get me wrong here, but his poor upbringing, miserable home life, and his father’s towering shadow that strikes fear into all of his children’s hearts have facilitated the degradation of this young man’s mental stability, emotional threshold, and moral scruples. True, Frankie and Miles might have turned out dramatically differently despite being raised by the same man, but every child is a different case and their early childhood to young adulthood development dependent on their inherent traits and natures. Hunter is somebody that needs a lot of HEALTHY discipline, guidance, attention, and reassurance. And because he’s been starved of all of that, he’s begun lashing out in problematic ways. Despite his inflated sense of self-importance, he’s riddled with insecurity. It’s why he feels he always has something to prove. He exhibits a strong vigilante-complex and the traits and characteristics of a megalomaniac; qualities of which coexist and overlap. He is excessively protective of the defenceless whom are preyed upon and/or any cause that he feels has been done an injustice, and in his determination to defend and protect from that perceptible injustice, he becomes something of a predator himself. All of this is rooted in a deep-seated desire to feel important and needed where he isn’t getting it at home from the people who matter most to him. As it stands right now, video games are everything to him so much that he’d resort to threats and harassment to defend both them and his right to keep playing them. But Hunter isn’t just some spoilt gamer brat that is absurdly defensive of his video games. Just as his older brother turns to drugs and alcohol to cope, Hunter is dependent on his video games. He immerses himself in a virtual world to escape his own. This is his sole outlet and coping mechanism that allows him to feel any happiness. Strictly from his point of view clouded in mental illness, I understand why he went to such extremes over something as trivial-seeming as a video game because to him, his video games are his everything. I would not be surprised if he even personified them in his mind as his friends with the way he aggressively and desperately defended one of them. It serves to remind that he is very, very ill. Of course the attitudes he has shown in the way he has gone about this reflects a very problematic line of thinking, but also can be attributed to how he’s been raised given his father’s ignorant views and practiced misogyny. I don’t think Hunter subscribes to these awful ideologies he’s been spouting off though as much as he’s keen on using selective techniques to incite the strongest reaction out of people; IE: for people belonging to marginalized social groups, personalized microaggressions that he knows will hurt them most. This comes from a place of psychopathy more than bigotry, but that’s for another discussion. In the end, I don’t condone Hunter’s actions. Despite that I consider there to be many mitigating factors, I do not trivialize or downplay the asperity of them. What he did was cataclysmically disgusting. I just see a bigger and darker picture of which his problematic behaviour is rooted in. I honestly do not think he is beyond redemption. He just needs serious help.